Planning Your Trip to the MBTA Public Hearings

Now that Tom Brady is officially done for the season, we imagine many of you have a lot of feelings you don’t know how to handle. Instead of turning to the bottle or writing a strongly-worded letter to Bernard Pollard, why not turn your attention to another maligned institution?

The MBTA is planning to eliminate some bus routes, and it is holding a public meeting this evening hear the lamentations of those who would be affected by its cuts. After the jump, we use the MBTA’s Trip Planner to help commuters from areas that would be affected by the changes make it to the Honan-Allston Library.

For our experiment, we told the site to use all services to get us to the library by 5:45 p.m., just to make sure we get a good seat.

Let’s start at 141 Green Street in Jamaica Plain. This is the home of the Green Street Gallery, which is situated in the Orange Line stop of the same name. It is also on the 48 bus, which is one of routes the MBTA hopes to cut.

Route: Orange Line to 66 bus
Cost: $3.50
Time: 53 minutes

Next, let’s pretend we’re leaving from the Shaw’s Supermarket in Melrose, which is near the 137 bus, which the T also hopes to scale back.

Route: Walk five minutes to the 137 bus, take the bus to the Orange Line, take the Orange Line to Sullivan Square, take the 86 bus, and walk 10 minutes to the library
Cost: $5.00
Time: 68 minutes

Finally, let’s depart from Harbor Towers. These condos are on the route of the 6 bus, which the T… also hopes to eliminate. The endangered bus runs until shortly after 6 p.m., but the Trip Planner suggests riders walk to the Orange Line.

Route: Walk 14 minutes to State Street stop, take the Orange Line to Roxbury Crossing, take the 66 bus
Cost: $3.50
Time: 74 minutes

If that sounds like too much of a hassle, you can wait for one of the other public meetings about the T’s 2008 service plan, or you can inform the agency about why your bus means so much to you in writing.

Map generated by MBTA Trip Planner